A deposit alternative company says there’s been an increase in demand for its own products. 

Zero Deposit claims a rise of 31% in the number of Cardiff rental properties adopting this option, while in Nottingham it’s a 28% rise, Liverpool 17% and Swansea 15%. 

In total the firm claims that across 14 cities the number of tenants opting for a deposit alternative “has increased significantly.”

Chief executive Sam Reynolds says: “The tide is certainly turning in the adoption of deposit alternatives and that demand is now driven by both tenants and landlords. We’ve always seen significant tenant demand for our product, but it’s now mirrored by landlords who are naturally looking for greater asset protection.”

In recent years deposit alternatives have been in the spotlight, often for controversial reasons.

In summer 2023 the Competitions and Markets Authority started an investigation into “areas of concern” in the private rental sector, one of which was what it called “zero deposit schemes.”

In 2022 The Observer newspaper claimed that some agents were flouting the ban on tenant fees by effectively obliging renters to sign up to such schemes as a precondition for their tenancy. And in 2020 the Citizens Advice questioned whether renters fully understood the “deposit replacement” concept compared to traditional government-backed tenancy deposit schemes.

The Zero Deposit company claims that since the Competition and Market Authority review was launched awareness of the differences between schemes had grown, encouraged further by the Labour government’s Renters Rights Bill. 

Reynolds says: “We believe deposit alternatives will be the norm within the next three years. “